Wireless communication technologies have rapidly developed over the last several years to the point where a mobile device, such as a mobile cellular telephone or a multi-function mobile wireless device (capable of email, internet browsing, voice calls, etc.), is capable of operating in multiple wireless networks. For example, such a multi-mode wireless communication device may be capable of operating in a wireless local area network (WLAN), such as a WiFi™ network and also in a wide area wireless network, such as a cellular network. The multi-mode device may employ voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) techniques when conducting a voice call via the WiFi network and more traditional circuit switching techniques when conducting a voice call via the cellular network. Consequently, the multi-mode device needs to reliably transition between the two different networks.
The timing and appropriateness of when a multi-mode device transitions into or out of a WLAN greatly affects the performance of one or more applications that may be active on the multi-mode device.